Last year, I made a round at all the inspiring places of San Francisco. And of course Elon Musk’s building of robots was at the top of my list.
In the space of a decade, Tesla has revolutionized the auto industry in an already saturated market. The man behind it all has become the Steve Jobs of today. Innovation, great design and a complicated personality that has impressed us all.
In Pakistan, he was somebody you read about on the internet, but in San Francisco, his name constantly came up at events, classrooms, and in dinner conversations. One memorable line was at Internapalooza where a speaker said, “Look to your left, now look to your right. One of you could be the next Elon Musk.”
Getting into the Tesla Factory
A meeting with Elon Musk would be impossible, so the next best thing would be to visit the place where all the magic happened — the Tesla factory. But getting in isn’t so easy for everybody.
The only way to take a tour of the Tesla factory is if you’re a family member of a Tesla owner. Additionally, there’s a limit of only 5 family members (including the owner) that can take the tour.
Because spaces are limited, we registered for the tour about a month ahead. They sent an email confirming it, the time, address and some instructions like “must wear closed-toe shoes, long pants, and a shirt with sleeves (short sleeves ok).”
The day of the tour
The factory is located in Fremont which is on the outskirts of San Francisco. I took the BART right till the last station (in a deserted carriage) and then drove less than 10 minutes to the factory from there.
Driving up you find yourself in a car park of gleaming Teslas. Not sure if they were for sale or owned by the factory workers. Once you get your Tesla parked in a designated (supercharging) area, they take you to this little area that is pretty much a Tesla gift shop to sign some agreement and wait until the tour starts.
In there you can buy Tesla caps, shirts, hoodies, mugs and even drink Tesla coffee — yep, Tesla’s own custom coffee (which tbh didn’t taste so good). On display was a Tesla car and solar panels and some screens you could interact with for information on the panels. We waited for quite a while, took some photos, and I bought a travel coffee mug.
The tour begins
Finally we’re called to a door on the side and meet our enthusiastic tour guide. He asked us to switch off our phones and gave factory safety rules. Two people (including myself) asked if we’d get to see Elon Musk. He said you do catch a glimpse of him sometimes but he wasn’t in today.
After we passed through the door, the tour began. But this is where I’ll have to stop myself because I have belatedly realized that what I had signed earlier was an NDA agreement.
I’m sorry, I literally had to cut all of this section out after I had finished writing it! But if you’re interested, this blogger has written a detailed account of what goes on inside.
It was a fun tour that lasted an hour and through it all I was itching to take some photos (but of course that wasn’t allowed), so I only have my awful memory to hold on to.
A great day
One thing that really inspires you at the factory is the fact that this was all one man’s vision. I don’t know how to best to explain it, but it made me feel like anything is possible. If an ordinary man like Elon Musk could dream and make this a reality, I or anybody else could do the same with our dreams.
I also consider the factory a good luck charm for me. Because when I switched on my phone, I got a positive email from a Y-Combinator partner I had emailed about my website thiscodeworks.com. It was exhilarating to read it just as I was walking out of the factory. And months later, opened a lot of doors for me.
All in all, it was a great experience I’m lucky to have. As for the coffee mug, I had to stop using it because it leaked and the Starbucks barcode stickers left sticky residue on the surface. So now it’s just a fond reminder of my visit to the Tesla factory every time I open my kitchen cupboard.
